Filing for Next Year’s Municipal Election Begins in December

Four City Positions to Be on Ballot

The filing period for individuals seeking elected positions within the St. Clair city limits will begin Dec. 12.

Information given to the board of aldermen last month states the 2013 election calendar gives people a five-week window to declare their candidacy. Filing closes on Jan. 15, 2013.

Four municipal positions will be on the ballot — mayor, two aldermen and judge.

For the first time, the next mayoral term will be four years. Voters in 2011 decided to expand the term from the current two years beginning in 2013.

Mayor Ron Blum currently is in his third two-year term as St. Clair’s leader.

One alderman term in each of the city’s two wards will be up.

In Ward 1, Zach Fuchs was appointed at the beginning of the year to fill the unexpired term of Connie Marrocco, who resigned in December 2011. Unopposed, he won re-election this past April to serve the remaining year.

His and Barb McGlenn’s first two-year term will expire. McGlenn represents the second ward.

Municipal Court Judge A. David Arand was appointed by Blum to fill out the unexpired term of longtime judge Nick Gasaway late last year, and, like Fuchs, won re-election in April running unopposed for the final year of the term.

Gasaway had reached the state-required retirement age of 75 and was forced to step down.

The judge’s position is a two-year term.

The election is scheduled for April 2.

Promotion

In other business from late last month, city employee Nick Williams was promoted to wastewater system supervisor. In conjunction with the promotion, he received a salary increase to $17.89 per hour.

“He is a dedicated employee,” Blum said in supporting the promotion. “He is a good, all-around worker.”

Previously, Williams was listed as a wastewater plant operator. But after Clairborne Saucier resigned earlier this year, Williams assumed the responsibilities of plant operations in addition to his duties as pretreatment coordinator, Childers said.

According to approved 2012 budget information, Williams was making $14.09 per hour.